THE TIME MASTERS Restoration Trailer: René Laloux’s Fantastical Animated Sci-Fi is Given the 4K Treatment

July 15, 2024

Iconic French sci-fi animator René Laloux (Fantastic Planet) is having another one of his hidden gems restored by Janus Films later this month. His 1982 tale The Time Masters incorporates Mœbius’ trippy, mindblowing design in this story of a young orphaned boy navigating strange life on a desert planet. Laloux adapted the work of Fantastic Planet author Stefan Wul along with prolific French crime novelist Jean-Patrick Manchette and Mœbius. Ahead of its July 26 release at NYC’c IFC Center (and possible Criterion rollout), a new trailer for the restoration has arrived.

Here’s the official synopsis:

Directed by visionary sci-fi animator René Laloux (Fantastic Planet) and designed by the legendary Jean Giraud (a.k.a. Mœbius), The Time Masters is a trippy, visually fantastic foray into existentialist space adventure. After his parents are killed on the dangerous planet Perdide, young Piel (voiced by Frédéric Legros) survives by maintaining radio contact with Jaffar (Jean Valmost), a pilot transporting the exiled Prince Matton (Yves-Marie) and Princess Belle (Monique Thierry) from their former kingdom. Jaffar seeks the help of Silbad (Michel Elias), a cheerful old-timer who knows how to circumvent Perdide’s hazards, including brain-devouring insects and watery graves. Along the way, Jaffar and company encounter a pair of impish homunculi stowaways, identity-less angels controlled by an amorphous hive mind, and the Masters of Time, mysterious beings who can bend reality and perhaps reveal to the heroes their secret origins and destinies.

See the restoration trailer and poster below.